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Selecting from our flexible team of instrumentalists and singers, custom programmes are crafted for each occasion from the wealth of wonderful music available.

Performers

Cantus 

 

Altus    

Tenor   

Bassus  

Lute     

Anna Thunström graduated from the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg 2012, where she studied singing, focusing on Early Music. During her studies, Anna often performed both as a soloist and as a member of Gothenburg Cathedral's Gustavi Vocalensemble. Shortly after graduating, Anna moved to London to pursue her passion for Early Music. There she was fortunate enough to start collaborations with performers such as Wezi Elliott.

Sam Brown took up music through a chance encounter on his 13th birthday, and is still surprised to be studying lute and guitar at the Royal College of Music, nine years on. A popular and "highly intellectual" performer, he combines his time there with a fledgling career and mild coffee addiction.

Adrian Horsewood was born in Hong Kong in 1983. After studying mathematics and then philosophy at university, he decided that the best way to find fulfilling and lasting employment was to become a singer. Adrian is also the editor of Early Music Today magazine, and when he has spare time can be found eating roast potatoes, visiting churches, swimming, reading travel literature, and supporting Grimsby Town FC (seldom simultaneously).

Toby Carr is a guitarist and lutenist from Hertfordshire who is based in London.  Currently studying with Robert Brightmore for a postgraduate degree in classical guitar performance at Guildhall School of Music and Drama he is active as a soloist and chamber musician around London and the South-East. A specialist in Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, Toby performs as a continuo player and accompanist for projects ranging from intimate Elizabethan Lute song to Baroque Opera.

Lindsay Richardson's first ever foray into solo singing was with lute song repertoire at Dartington International Summer School, but after training at Trinity College of Music her performing career has taken her much further afield - into medieval music, contemporary opera, musical-theatre, jazz and acting on stage and screen. This return to the world of the lute - and of voices in consort - gives her enormous pleasure!

Emma Kirkby’s career has been ground-breaking; invited, while still a schoolteacher, to sing with pioneers in the historically-informed performance of Renaissance and Baroque music, she honed her craft over decades with British and international groups large and small, duo partners, and record companies, until her voice and style were recognized worldwide.

 

Through all this, singing with the lute was always her joy and her home territory, so now she is delighted to be sharing this amazing repertoire with tomorrow’s experts.

Jacob Heringman For 28 years now, the American-born lutenist has made his home in England, where he is established as a leading soloist, accompanist and chamber musician.

As soloist, he has released acclaimed CDs of renaissance lute repertoire, including recitals of Holborne, Bakfark, pieces from the Jane Pickeringe and Siena manuscripts, and intabulations of Josquin.

 

As accompanist, Jacob has worked regularly with such fine singers as Emma Kirkby, Barbara Bonney, Michael Chance, John Potter, Clare Wilkinson, Faye Newton and Catherine King.

 

Regular collaborators include the Dufay Collective, Theatre of the Ayre, Ariel Abramovich, Adel Salameh and Pellingmans' Saraband. He appears on many film soundtracks (including Harry Potter III, The Hobbit, and Robin Hood), and is increasingly active in improvised and crossover music. Jacob also teaches (and uses) the Alexander Technique.

Roberta Diamond is an Australian soprano studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Marie Vassiliou.

 

Roberta has performed as a soloist in the Festival of Early Music Urbino, at the International Festival of Baroque Music in Bolivia, for the London Bach Society Bach Club, the Cantar Lontano Festival, the Brighton Early Music Festival and the Greenwich Early Music Festival. Coming performances include the Tilford Bach Festival, Handel-Hendrix House and the London Handel Festival.

 

Roberta is a member of the Berlin-based Baroque ensemble Titan's Rising.

Michael Solomon Williams is a graduate of The University of Leeds/ University of North Texas College of Music, York and the GSMD. As a solo, ensemble and session singer, he works frequently with groups such as the AAM, London Voices, Philharmonia Voices and the Monteverdi Choir, as well as with leading European period ensembles including Le Concert d’Astrée, Les Eléments and Ensemble Jacques Moderne. Michael is an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artists programme at Aldeburgh and a regular recording artist for major Hollywood films and commercials.

Swiss soprano Marie Jaermann is studying under Amanda Roocroft at the Royal College of Music International Opera School, where she recently performed the role of Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She met Sam Brown in 2012 during her Master studies at the RCM and they decided to form a duet guitar/lute - voice. Since then, they have given many recitals in England and in Switzerland, exploring repertoire from Dowland to contemporary works.

Bass-Baritone Richard Moore is currently in his second year of an MMus at the RNCM. He sings with groups such as Armonico Consort, St Martin's Voices, Sestina and Musica Beata. No stranger to the operatic stage, Richard recently sang Mago Cristiano in Rinaldo for Longborough Festival Opera, covered Colline in La Boheme for Nevill Holt Opera and appeared as Purcells’ Aeneas at St Martin in the Fields.  He is a member of the chorus at Buxton Festival Opera. Richard studies with Peter Wilson and is very grateful for the support of the Pimlott Foundation and the Francis Higgins Bursary.

Gwendolen Martin was brought up in Wiltshire, studied music as a choral scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, and then took up a scholarship in singing at Trinity College of Music. She now combines a career as soloist, (including lute songs with Toby Carr ) with work as ensemble singer, performing all over the world  (The Monteverdi Choir; The Gabrieli Consort; Eric Whitacre Singers;  The Marian Consort). Gwendolen currently studies with Linda Hutchison.

Daniel Thomson originally from Melbourne, is a London-based chamber singer and tenor soloist. Known for his expressive, text-based singing, Daniel has received numerous positive reviews in Australia and the UK. His debut solo album Secret Fires of Love was released in 2018, a product of his studies with 'historically informed performance' author Robert Toft in Canada. 

He is also known for his work with Lux Musicae London and Melbourne-based instrumental ensemble La Compañia, with whom he features as a guest vocalist on their critically acclaimed 2013 CD release Destino Mexicano.

Wezi Elliott's interest in music began at an early age, thanks to his father’s rock albums. During his final school year he discovered the lute works of Vivaldi and Bach and fell in love with the instrument. A chance meeting with Peter Jones encouraged him to acquire his own lute and study at the RCM. Since studying there he has been playing solo and ensemble music all over the country. Most of Wezi’s performing is in duo with  Anna Thunström. Currently teaching in the East End, he aims to persuade the school’s D&T department to make lutes for his pupils to play on.

Catherine Carter enjoys working regularly with Opera Erratica; TROUPE and The Langham Research Centre creating new music theatre. She has also worked with Birmingham Opera Company; Merce Cunningham Dance Company and London Voices mainly on 20th Century repertoire. Dowland Works has been a delightful foray into the world of John Dowland and the lute song. Catherine also set up and runs the charity Fairbeats! Music, for young refugees and their families in South London.

Angela Hicks graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music. As soloist she sings the core oratorios and also enjoys chamber music, regularly performing cantatas and other smaller works with period instruments. As a choral singer Angela is a member of a number of ensembles, an apprentice with The Monteverdi Choir, and deputises at many of the leading London churches. She also sings and plays celtic harp with UK medieval ensemble Joglaresa.

Clemmie Franks is a versatile, Oxford-based singer, who has built up an extensive range of experience performing and recording as a soloist and ensemble vocalist both nationally and internationally. A Graduate from Trinity Laban with distinction, she is a founding member of Voice, a vocal trio with whom she has recorded numerous albums and collaborated with world-class artists. She also enjoys regularly singing with London Voices, Audio Network Choir, Britten Sinfonia Voices and early music groups Sinfonye and Vivaldi's Women. She loves the range of music her work allows her to explore; everything from fresh off the press composition to the early notation of Hildegard of Bingen.

Lisa Kiriaty

Emma Kirkby | Olivia Bell | Roberta Diamond | Hannah Ely | Angela Hicks | Marie Jaermann | Lisa Kiriaty | Gwendolen Martin | Emily Owen | Anna Thunström 

Penelope Appleyard | Catherine Carter | Clemmie Franks | Patricia Hammond | Lindsay Richardson

Daniel Thomson | Michael Solomon Williams

Vicente Chavarria | Adrian Horsewood | Richard Moore | Laurence Williams

Jacob Heringman | Niki Andronikou | James Bramley | Sam Brown | Toby Carr | Wezi Elliott | Peter Jones | Eric Thomas

James Bramley (lute) performs throughout the UK and abroad as a soloist and accompanist, in ensembles and as a continuo player. He recently completed his postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has worked with artists including Emma Kirkby, Rachel Podger and in side-by-side projects with the Academy of Ancient Music. He has given concerts and recitals for The Lute Society, the London Handel Festival, Dartington International Festival, Brighton Early Music Festival and Brecon Baroque Festival. Recent broadcast work includes Pepys the Musician (BBC Radio 4) and The Miniaturist (BBC One).

Eric Thomas studied music performance, composition and musicology at The University of Edinburgh and then took an MMus in Historically Informed Performance Practice, with the aid of a Carnegie-Cameron postgraduate bursary, jointly at The University of Glasgow and the Royal Conservatiore of Scotland, receiving lute tuition from Jamie Akers. Eric continued his studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, studying with Fred Jacobs, and also attended the Urbino Early Music Festival and Darlington International Summer School. Eric is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Southampton researching the role of improvisation in early 16th century Italian lute music, where he is supervised by Elizabeth Kenny and Laurie Stras.

Niki Andronikou started her musical studies as a clarinettist but ‘discovered’ the renaissance lute at the final year of her undergraduate studies at the Ionian University, in Corfu. She then went to pursue a MMus in Musicology at the University of Southampton and later on, a PhD in Musicology at the University of York, where she studied Italian lute music and took part in various concerts. Niki currently lives in London where teaches the clarinet in primary schools and hopes someday to bring Early Music to Cyprus.

Emily Owen leads a varied freelance career singing in choirs, consort groups and as a soloist around the UK and abroad. Graduating from the Guildhall School of Music with Distinction, she is a regular soprano at the Church of All Saints Margaret Street  and the founder of early music ensemble, Ceruleo. She is a member of the Handel House Talent Young Artists Scheme 2016/17 and a cappella group Apollo5. She is a keen educator, leading Baroque Central workshops around London for Handel House and the RNIB and also with Apollo5 around the UK and in France. She is a private singing, piano, musicianship and woodwind teacher for ForeSound Music Education. 

Penelope Appleyard graduated with distinction from the Birmingham Conservatoire and is now busy as a soloist and consort singer, particularly in the field of early music. She performs with several leading ensembles, appearing as a step out soloist on many recordings. She sings regularly as a soloist in oratorio and early opera, engagements having taken her to venues from Mexico to Istanbul. She particularly loves chamber music and sings regularly with lutenist Hector Sequera, with whom she has performed many times for the National Lute Society and the Medieval and Renaissance Society. She co-founded historical ensembleFlorisma, and the Medieval and Renaissance Society. She co-founded historical ensembleFlorisma, with whom she has recorded her first solo commercial disc, Handel'sNeun Deutsche Arien.

A versatile musician, Vicente Chavarría has performed with the Boston Camerata, Bach-Collegium San Diego, LASchola, and Park Collegium (Belgium) and has guest conducted the Chamber Opera of USC (among others). He founded and led the ensembles Flos Campi and La Monarca in Los Angeles and Fra Angelico Chamber Choir and the Sibelius Camerata in Miami (with whom he gave the Miami premiere of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo). He made his international début in 2008, conducting the Sinfonia Bucharest in Romania. He has performed in masterclasses for Trudy Kane, Paul O’Dette, Andreas Scholl, Xavier Díaz-Latorre, Anne Azéma, and the Hilliard Ensemble, as a baritone and on flute, harpsichord, continuo organ, recorder, and Baroque guitar. Vicente is currently a postgraduate student in Orchestral Conducting at the Royal College of Music, where he works regularly with the RCM Philharmonic and Conductors Orchestras, Opera, and New Perspectives Ensemble. He is a Leverhulme Arts Scholar supported by a Reintamm Award.

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